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What are Rack Pulls and How Effective Are They? Gain Back Mass

Lower back exercises are constantly neglected, so you end up with a weak back because you don’t do any. How do you fix it? Rack pulls are the answer.

What The Hell Are Rack Pulls?

You’ve probably seen guys do rack pulls at the gym but you may have thought they were doing barbells rows funny. I don’t find it’s a very popular exercise in of itself, but it’s definitely effective.

In short, rack pulls are a modified deadlift with a limited range of motion.

Rack pulls are performed in a rack (duh). The bar is set on the safety guides at about knee height, depending on how deep you want the range of motion.

Rack pulls are effective at really working your lower back since you’re not limited by leg strength like deadlifts. This way you can target your lower optimally, without relying on your quads or hamstrings.

How Are Rack Pulls Different Than Deadlifts?

When you deadlift, whatever grip it may be, the bar is set on the ground. In some instances, you can step on a platform or plate to increase the range of motion of the deadlift.

As you straighten up with a deadlift you metaphorically push your feet through the floor, using the strength of your legs and back to raise the weight.

Now for rack pulls, the barbell is resting on the safety guides of the rack. For most, the safety is set to around knee height. If it’s too low, you’re just doing a deadlift and if it’s too high, the range of motion will be too short.

Just like a deadlift, you want to hinge your hips as you complete the exercise. Since your legs will be left out of the equation, your lower back will be constantly worked during the exercise.

Since the range of motion is shortened, you can overload the weight on rack pulls. Having said that, if you have a sensitive or weak lower back, this will be the last thing you want to do. Warm-up with a lighter exercise such as hyperextensions, with or without additional weight, before you jump into rack pulls. This will reduce the chance of injury by literally warming up the muscle.

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The Best Damn Feeder Workouts for Chest

It’s 2018, have you heard of Feeder workouts? If not you’re missing out on the best damn way to grow your chest!

Feeder workouts work, and and it was the main method of Rich Piana’s workouts. But if you’re new to this concept what the hell are Feeder workouts?

 

 

What Are Feeder Workouts?

This is an excerpt from the original article The Truth About Rich Piana’s Feeder Workouts

The idea behind a feeder workout is that you are going to pump your muscle like crazy with high repetitions.

This will then force blood, oxygen, and other nutrients into the muscle thus ‘feeding’ the muscle.

When performing a feeder workout you use very light weight, very minimal rest, and focus entirely on the pump.

What’s the point of a feeder workout?

Good question! The point is to grow your muscle.

“BUT DON’T I NEED SUPER HIGH WEIGHT TO GROW MY MUSCLES?”

Not entirely true! Like always there are many different philosophies and we’ll dive into the reasoning behind this and why it actually works.

So you pump, pump and pump up your muscle full of blood for ultimate muscle growth. You can hit your chest with heavy ass weight for years on end and get no growth. What most guys do is throw some plates on the on the bar, bench some ungodly weight and pat themselves on the back.

You can’t just simply move the weight and expect a huge barrel chest!

One of the core concepts in bodybuilding is the mind-muscle connection. You have to really think about how your muscle feels during the exercise. By creating a strong mind-muscle connection, you can distinguish different muscles easier. This will allow you to really target the muscle group you’re after, whether it be your chest, arms or legs.

It wasn’t until I started hitting my chest with tons of volume that I noticed growth

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Beginners Guide To Getting Big Forearms [Updated For 2019]

Popeye, Arnold and Mike Mentzer all had them: big forearms. For a lot of guys, getting big forearms is a huge challenge. Huge forearms are one of the first thing people notice, it brings respect and shows strength. If your forearms aren’t getting bigger, I’ll show you the best ways to grow your forearms and get results.

Personally it wasn’t until I started doing certain forearms exercises (that I’ll outline below) that I finally achieved substantial growth. I hear so many times from guys in the gym “oh I can’t grow my forearms, I’ve tried everything!”. Well obviously you haven’t tried everything if you still haven’t grown your forearms! 

 For some, it’s a hard muscle to grow (like your calves) but it doesn’t have to be. 

So what does it come down to?

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Fit Simplify Resistance Loop Exercise Bands Review

Exercise bands are all the rage nowadays; they’re cheap and effective. Everyone has them in their gym bag, but do you? Which ones do you buy? Fit Simplify Resistance Loop Bands are the bands I’ll be talking about in this article. They’re simple enough and they don’t use much space in your gym bag.

The one thing that most gym goers go wrong is not warming up properly. This can lead to serious injury that can keep you out of the gym, pretty much the opposite of what you want. This is where resistance bands come in. The resistance loop bands I’ll be reviewing today is the Fit Simplify Resistance Loop Exercise Bands.

The Importance of Warming Up

As I mentioned earlier, if you don’t warm up properly before exercising, it can lead to injury that can leave out of the gym. You should gently warm up your muscles before weightlifting, which entails gradually increasing your heart rate and blood circulation.

Stretching prepares your muscles for the pain you’re going to put them through. It also raises the temperature in your muscles.

Why do you want to raise the temperature of your muscles?

Hemoglobin, a protein in your blood that transports oxygen, releases more oxygen into your muscles when at a higher temperature.

Again, why should I care?

More oxygen = better performance, it’s that simple.

You’ve probably seen dudes warm up in the gym in hoodies, sweating buckets. If you’ve ever seen Rocky, he always warms up in a gray hoodie and sweatpants.

The increase of temperature by wearing a heavy piece of clothing warms up your muscles (duh!). This allows your muscles to contract quicker and respond to stimulus faster. If you’ve ever been in the freezing cold in the dead of a Canadian winter, you’ll know what I’m talking about. Your extremities, such as your hands and feet, won’t react as fast. Heart rate is slowed, reaction time and strength are decreased.

Performance in the gym needs to be 100%, that’s why you’re there in the first place. To increase performance, you probably already drink a pre workout drink. But have you heard about using salt for a performance increase? Read my other article on  Why I Put Salt in My Preworkout and Why You Should Too.

Something that isn’t mentioned frequently with warming up is mentally preparing yourself for the exercise. So many gym goers (myself included unfortunately) step foot in the gym and instantly want to move some heavy-ass weight. You want to prepare yourself for that next personal record, so you want to get in the mindset as well. Try to think about the technique of the exercise you’re going to perform while warming up. Go through the motions so you don’t get caught up in yourself.

Fit Simplify Resistance Exercise Loop Bands Review

You can’t really go wrong with these bands, and you don’t need anything more complicated either. The bands themselves are 12” by 2” wide and are made of latex (not rubber), so you don’t get that funny chemical smell.


Included are five different bands at different strengths. As per Amazon, these are the resistances per band:

  • Green (x-Light) 2-4 lbs (thickness is 0.4 mm)
  • Blue (Light) 6-8 lbs (thickness is 0.60 mm)
  • Yellow (Medium) 10-12 lbs (thickness is 0.80 mm)
  • Red (Heavy) 15 – 20 lbs (thickness is 1.0 mm)
  • Black (x-Heavy) 25 – 30 lbs (thickness is 1.2 mm)

In my normal gym sessions, I’ll generally use the bands before any chest or shoulder exercises. Check out my other article Ultimate Guide To Growing Your Upper Chest on how to warm up before chest exercises.

The best part about these loop bands is that they’re so flexible in use. You can hit pretty much any body part with these, and that’s why they should be a staple in your warm up routine.

For legs, I like to start with lateral band walks or X band walks. Lateral band walks are super simple to set up too, just step in the loop and start stepping sideways.

If you want more tension, try the X band walk. This is a very similar exercise, except that you make a small loop with the band to hold on to and step on the band instead of wrapping it around your ankles.

For lower back exercises, banded hyperextensions are king. If you have issues holding a plate to your chest during hyperextensions, this is your next step. They add constant tension, so you don’t have to rely on gravity to do it’s work. Plus if you want to make the exercise more challenging, just use a heavier band!

The bands themselves are made well, and feel comfortable against your skin. The last thing you want is ripping the outer layer of your skin off as you attempt to warm up in excruciating pain (let’s avoid that completely). Also included is a lifetime guarantee for the bands, in the event that you become super Hulk and stretch the bands beyond belief.

Where can I buy the bands?

You can buy Fit Simplify Resistance Loop Bands on Amazon, check them out below.

Keep them in your gym bag so you’ll always bring them to the gym. Make it a habit to stretch every little muscle before jumping into weightlifting.

Injuries are lessened when you dynamically stretch before exercising, increasing muscle activation and blood flow.

The Ultimate Bodybuilder’s Guide to Fast Food [2019 Edition]

Fast food and bodybuilding just don’t mix, but what happens if you desperately need a cheat meal? You should already know how bad fast food is for your body, but let’s say you want to indulge: what do you eat?

There’s been so many time you’ve probably missed a meal and you’re about to head to the gym. So you’re gonna do it anyway…

I’ll show you the best fast food restaurants to eat at if you want to keep your gains and feel fat.

Ignoring the obvious, fast food is one of the worst things you can put into your body. High in saturated fat, cholesterol and calories, it’s nutritionally dense but cheap. Available pretty much every time and everywhere, fast food is ubiquitous. You can’t enter a mall or drive down a main street without seeing the Golden Arches.

Read our article I’ve spent over $2500 on Protein Powders, These Ones Taste Good – Th eBest Tasting Protein Powder

If you’re out travelling or just plain hungry, you’ve probably thought about getting a nice delicious, greasy, cheesy hamburger but you don’t. You don’t because it’s shit food and your plain chicken breast and broccoli hits your macros better than it ever could. But let’s say you want to indulge and treat yourself, what do you eat? Let’s jump in to the best fast food choices that bodybuilders would eat.

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